New Sheffield high-rise window safety probe after fall deaths

Coroner Alexandra Pountney raised the issue following an inquest into the death of council tenant Saffra Winn, who fell from a high-rise in Upperthorpe in July 2022. An inquest into her death was held in March and the coroner subsequently issued a prevention of future deaths report to the council.

It also referred to the death of a woman, who was not named, at a council block in Netherthorpe in December 2023. The report said the coroner was “concerned by Sheffield City Council’s inaction in relation to the investigation and assessment of risk following cases of catastrophic injury and death within their social housing stock”.

The council has told Ms Pountney that an independent surveyor is making a report to the council by Friday (June 14) that will include advice on risk assessing window catches in city tower blocks.

The council’s response said: “It is SCC’s [the council’s] understanding that the windows installed, and the integral window restrictors, meet both building regulations and British standards and are therefore compliant with current guidance and regulation.”

It added: “The chartered building surveyor who has been instructed has expertise in structural and defect diagnosis, and safety, health and environment issues. The council has asked the expert to advise onrisk assessing the windows and the factors to be considered.

Assessment

“The council intends to undertake a risk assessment of the windows following receipt of the expert’s report.” The response said that the assessment would be considered by its housing and repairs improvement board, which ischaired by the executive director of neighbourhood services.

It also stated: “SCC has also established a high-rise forum with window safety being an agenda item at its first meeting in June 2024. Officers will be sharing a communications plan which will look at providing routine information to all residents of high-rise buildings regarding window safety.

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“SCC wrote to all residents in high-rise accommodation outlining window safety best practice. Also, guidance will be provided at the property sign-up and we will also send out an annual communication to re-enforce window safety principles.”

The council pointed out that the coroner had raised concerns that a building safety regulator had been put in post in January 2023 but it had not been consulted over the issues raised. The council pointed out that this person actually works for the Health and Safety Executive.

The council said it had written to the regulator, who replied that window restrictors “would not be suitable to provide adequate permanent protection from falling as there is always the potential that they could be left in an open position”.

Strategies

However, “fixed window restrictors are often unsuitable as they may conflict with other requirements of building regulations such as provision for means of escape in the event of a fire, ventilation, and overheating mitigation strategies”.

The coroner said that the inquest heard that the head of housing investment and maintenance for the council “was not aware of the fatal incidents above until his attendance was required at this inquest”.

The council responded: “SCC acknowledge that following Saffra Winn’s death in June 2022 the process to ensure that there were no faults with the windows in the flat was insufficient and relied on documentary evidence from several sources to verify that each window operated as intended.

“However, following the death in December 2023, inspections of the flat windows took place as soon as possible by housing staff to identify any issues. It was noted that in this case, again, all windows and restrictors operated as required with no issues reported.”

The council said a new procedure will be in place by Friday to log all reported fatalities and near-miss falls from high-rises and guidance outlining when a safety report is required.

Any fatality would also be reported to the council’s housing policy committee.